When the trumpets held aloft by the golden angels dominating the spires of St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork were stolen by some prankster last December, the city took notice. It's not as if St Fin Barre's needed noticing; it can hardly be missed. More that beautiful things can sometimes be taken for granted. The cathedral reputedly stands on the site where Finbarr, patron saint of Cork, established his monastery in the sixth century.
Today, it is a shrine to the presence of the Church of Ireland community in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, which has about 10,000 faithful. St Fin Barre's is on the south bank of the Lee. Its Catholic counterpart, dominating the northern views of the river, is the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne, better known to one and all in Cork as the North Cathedral. Both buildings were in need of repair if they were to be handed on to future generations. They are now so much a part of the city's fabric that it would be impossible to imagine the landscape without them.
Of course, sometimes unusual events have unusual outcomes. The golden trumpets were found not long after that idiot put his life at risk by using scaffolding below the main spires of St Fin Barre's to begin a climb that would end with him - everyone thinks it was a man - scaling the final bit with no security, merely using his hands and feet. For a few days, the cathedral's loss held the attention of the local and national media.
The reason the scaffolding was there in the first place was that St Fin Barre's, the great creation of the eccentric architect, William Burges, who donated the trumpets as his parting gift to Cork on completion of his masterpiece in the late 1800s, was undergoing a facelift. And a little bit more than that, too. In the new millennium, St Fin Barre's is set to have within its grounds an interpretative centre which will tell locals and visitors the story of Cork's evolution. The cost of that will run to more than £5 million, but when the trumpets were stolen people of all persuasions in the city rowed in to help the restoration project.
The Dean of Cork, the Very Rev Michael Jackson, said the response had been enormous. In a gesture that would have been unlikely a few decades ago, Bishop John Buckley, who administers the Dioceses of Cork and Ross, drove into the grounds of St Fin Barre's a couple of months ago, to join the Dean in what spin doctors would call a good photo opportunity and the makings of a colour story for the newspapers. They scaled the scaffolding to the top of the spires, step by step, inch by inch.
Bishop Buckley said he had made a novena beforehand - just in case. There it was - an ecumenical gesture that united the two great cathedrals and the people of the city, who have affection for both, wherever they worship.
There has been an unbroken Christian tradition on the St Fin Barre's site for 1,400 years. The North Cathedral is a little newer. The first building there, says the diocesan public relations officer, Father Tom Hayes, was as a result of the vision of the bishop of Cork between 1787 and 1815 - Francis Moylan.
In 1799, the foundation stone was laid. The cathedral was opened in 1808 but 12 years later, in the fraught political climate of the time, it was burned down one evening. Bishop John Murphy, whose family gave its name to the stout that isn't Guinness, galvanised the people of Cork to help restore the building. He commissioned a young sculptor - John Hogan - to carve 27 images in pine of the saints and apostles.
Over time, because of various restorations and additions, the carvings became hidden and were rediscovered only in recent years. Hogan would become a famous artist, and the wooden statues he created now adorn the arches of the main aisle.
Like St Fin Barre's, the North Cathedral's fabric needed attention. A fund-raising project, involving about £2.5 million, was organised by a voluntary committee. Serious problems had been discovered in the roof and other parts of the building.
The cathedral has now been restored but a debt of £658,567 remains. The fundraisers are still active and there is every reason to believe, the church authorities say, that the money will be found, thanks to the unfailing generosity of the people and some novel promotional events, including the auction of 15 cars courtesy of Toyota.